Shop, Shoot, Share

To celebrate the launch their ready-to-wear collection, J Brand Jeans hosted an interactive “Style Showdown” using hashtag #JBrandIFB. Bloggers raided a wardrobe of the latest and most coveted J Brand pieces for a chance to win a $1000 gift certificate. With countless bloggers curating creative looks, the friendly J Brand team had an opportunity to genuinely interact with bloggers both live and online (and during and after the conference). @JBrandJeans Twitter stream received a ton of activity as both the brand and bloggers shared their favorite new products and lookbook-esque photos. The top nine looks from the IFB conference were selected to enter the official “J Brand Style Showdown” on Facebook, which is currently live. Vote for your fave look here. Kudos to J Brand’s marketing and social media team for paving the way to authentic blogger engagement.

Charge up the Value

To ensure bloggers could tweet, tumble, pin, share photos, post and so forth without fear of losing battery life – Lyst hosted an essential charging station that ensured attendees could stay connected throughout the conference. By creating a space that was valuable – bloggers swarmed to the Lyst station to learn more about this social shopping site that helps you discover the best fashion in one uber-customized stylefeed. If fact, Lyst’s new affiliate program, Blog Connect, is all about adding real value to bloggers. By connecting their sites to Lyst.com, bloggers can post outfit and shopping stories and link products on Lyst.com or simply add items they love and earn money whenever shoppers buy them.

Make it “Worth” it

Every year, the hot button question is “What are bloggers worth?,” Lifebooker joined a panel of successful bloggers from Glamour, Denimology, I Spy DIY, Corporette, and La Carmina in leading the conversation about brand and blogger partnerships. Lifebooker allows members to discover exclusive health and beauty deals and book discounted online beauty appointments based on price, location and rating. As an emerging concept, the brand is seeking new partners and influencers. So how can bloggers get noticed by brands that are looking for strategic partnerships? Lifebooker’s Brand Director, Lauren Tesar, looks for blogs with “flexibility, credibility and scalability”. To learn how each panelist monetized their blog, find the Livestream recap here.

The IFB conference sparked a host of new relationships between bloggers and brands. The key to these partnerships are finding bloggers that are on brand for your vision and making sure to approach blogger relationships with experience-rich opportunities, customization and authenticity.

Image via BrightontheDay

On February 8, IFB will host the second of their bi-annual fashion blogger conference during fashion week. The conference lineup includes social media and PR maven Aliza Licht (DKNY PR GIRL), Glamour Magazine’s Suze Schwartz, Fashionista.com’s Executive Editor Leah Chernikoff, Refinery29′s Connie Wang and fashion’s favorite bloggers like BryanBoy, Wendy Nguyen from Wendy’s Lookbook, Emily Schuman from Cupcakes & Cashmere, Andy Torres from Style Scrapbook, Erica Domesek from PS I Made This, Jenni Radosevich from I Spy DIY and more.

Jennine has done it all – from trips around the world to experience fashion on behalf of brands, to creating a top denim blog on behalf of ShopBop, to most recently, starting influencer marketing agency Coveted Media, consulting directly with top fashion brands around their blogger outreach strategy. This year at IFB she’s interested in exploring how fashion bloggers can emulate the brand-building antics of fashion PR and fashion media leaders to drive community, audience, and opportunity, as well as how mobile increasingly affects the way we create and collect content, as well as blog and share online.

Especially valuable to fashion PR’s are Jennine’s thoughts about how brands can best nurture relationships with bloggers.

Conference Details

• IFB Conference, February 8, Milk Studios (live-steam will be available)
• Follow along @_IFB, #IFBcon

 PR Couture & The Coveted (aka Crosby & Jennine)

As a fellow fashion film enthusiast (is there any way to say that without sounding snooty?), I asked the ladies to please share their favorite fashion films of 2011. They one-upped me, each sharing a favorite recent film as well as their favorite fashion films of all time.

Adelle McElveen

Favorite recent fashion film: Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. It came out in 2006 but I didn’t watch it until 2011. I love that she made period costume relevant. For me, when looking at photos of people from another era it’s so easy to disassociate them from the humanity they had in their time, and to observe instead of empathize or relate. And with Marie Antoinette specifically, history has villainized her, but Sophia Coppola showed me things I could relate to; for example, I could connect with the scenes when Marie Antoinette is playing around with new hair styles and trying on shoes with her friends. And even though she squandered France’s money during a time of war, I bet there were women who still wanted to emulate her style.

Favorite fashion film of all time: Clueless, for two reasons. One: that closet. Amazeballs. Two: it was an early influence on my personal style evolution. I was 11 or 12 when Clueless came out, and afterwards I started wearing endless plaid (fashion plaid, not lumberjack plaid), knee-high socks, mary jane’s, and mini-backpacks. It was the first time that I got inspired and started to make a look my own.

Kimara Mitchell

Favorite recent fashion film: A Single Man, from first-time director but long-time designer Tom Ford.  It’s clear that Ford can easily translate this vision for clothes onto the screen. not only does the film have fabulous costumes (done by Ford and Arianne Phillips), it also has amazing art direction and cinematography. It’s a perfect snapshot into sixties American style. From George Falconer’s drawer of perfectly starched white shirts to Kenny (Nicholas Hoult) in a fuzzy mohair sweater and Charley’s (Julianne Moore) mod eyeliner, big baubles and LBD, it’s a visual feast for the eyes.

Favorite fashion film of all time: To Catch a Thief: Growing up in Philadelphia, I was well aware of Grace Kelly and her rise to become a Hollywood royalty then a princess. I used to watch her movies with my grandmother, and To Catch a Thief was our favorite. How can you resist Kelly, dressed by Edith Head, who looked impeccable day (white sunglasses with an elegant black malliot) and night (the robin’s egg blue gown without a speck of jewelry or adornment). And Cary Grant was no slouch (in his own clothes!).

Annie Wilson

Favorite recent fashion film:2011 – Midnight in Paris – I loved Marion Cotillard’s flapper gowns and found that all of the “Paris past” sequences were styled beautifully.

Favorite fashion film of all time:Of course, this title may change tomorow, but for today I’ll pick The Age of Innocence. Made in 1993 about Edith Wharton’s New York City in the 1870s, this film is so incredibly detailed and colorful. The clothing and accessories all communicate so much about each character, what they want, and how they maneuver in society. It’s a beautiful film with no element of the era overlooked.

What are your favorite fashion films?